A celebration is in order: Billboard’s global charts turn 250 weeks old with Saturday’s June 28-dated rankings. Across almost five years, only a handful of songs have been there every single week – five on the latter and just two on the former.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts launched with charts dated Sept. 19, 2020. On the former, Cardi B led with “WAP,” featuring Megan Thee Stallion. On the later, Maluma was No. 1 with “Hawaii.” BTS’ “Dynamite” was No. 2 on both, eventually topping each list for multiple weeks. 249 weeks later, none of those songs remain, though “Dynamite” did crack Global Excl. U.S. earlier this year, last appearing at No. 150 on the Jan. 18 chart.
Only five songs from that first Global Excl. U.S. chart are still hanging on:
On the Global 200, the only songs that have appeared on every single list are The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Sheeran’s “Perfect.”
One thing tying these global hits together? They’re all performed in English and are by artists from the U.S., the U.K. or Canada. Even extending to the 22 songs that have lasted 200 weeks or more on either chart, the only broader international representation comes from Daft Punk (France), featured on The Weeknd’s “Starboy” with robotized backing vocals; a-ha (Norway), with the 1980s classic “Take on Me;” and Pinkfong, the South Korean educational company responsible for “Baby Shark.”
“Blinding Lights” reached No. 2 on both lists, but none of the other songs above have cracked the top 20. It might seem counterintuitive that some of the longest-lasting chart hits peaked outside that range, but it makes sense that the 250-weekers were pre-existing songs that have continued to linger. Most chart-toppers debut at No. 1 or climb there early in their runs, which means that outside of the inaugural batch, most global No. 1s have been handicapped simply by their release date in terms of appearing on the charts the longest.
“Blinding Lights” was released in November 2019 and topped the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 in April 2020, on its way to becoming the chart’s biggest hit of all time. Globally, it worked its way to No. 2 in January and February of 2021, powered in part by hype around The Weeknd’s Super Bowl Halftime performance, but could have topped the lists had they existed months prior.
“Someone You Loved” was released in 2018 and found its way to the top of the Hot 100 in November 2019. The other three 250-week hits all came out in 2017: “Shape of You” that January, “Believer” in February and “Perfect” in March.
All five songs are on this week’s global charts, topped by Sheeran on both lists: “Perfect” on the Global 200 at No. 66 and “Shape of You” on Global Excl. U.S. at No. 44. The march to 300 weeks and beyond continues as they likely aren’t going anywhere soon – “Shape of You” is higher than it’s been in three-and-a-half years.
